Exploding Kittens
Learn how to play one of the most beloved party games today! Exploding Kittens is fun and thrilling!
✍️ November 8, 2021
- 😄 What is Exploding Kittens
- 🤔 How to Play Exploding Kittens
- 😜 Rules for Exploding Kittens
- 🎦 Video Review: PsyCat Games’ Exploding Kittens
- 😍 Best Exploding Kittens Expansion Packs
- 😇 Games like Exploding Kittens
- 😎 FAQ about Exploding Kittens
What is Exploding Kittens? 🤔
Created by Exploding Kittens Inc., Exploding Kittens uses Russian-roulette-like gameplay. It is intense and always keeps everyone on their feet!
The game is meant for 2-5 players of ages 7+. One whole round can take about 15 minutes to play.
How to Play Exploding Kittens 🤓
Playing Exploding Kittens can be very confusing to some people because of the fact that it uses the drawing of a card to end a turn. Since this strategy isn’t normally seen, many players tend to forget especially if it’s your first time playing.
But don’t worry! Now let’s get right into Exploding Kittens.
Setting Up Exploding Kittens
Upon opening the Exploding Kittens Original Edition, you’ll find 56 cards in total:
- 6 diffuse cards
- 5 nope cards
- 5 see the future cards
- 4 exploding kitten cards
- 4 attack cards
- 4 skip cards
- 4 favor cards
- 4 shuffle cards
- 20 powerless card (But not entirely powerless!)
To start, remove all exploding kitten and diffuse cards from the deck. Next, shuffle the remaining cards and deal 4 cards each to all players. Make sure they’re dealt facing down!
Give 1 defuse card to each player and insert the remaining diffuse cards back into the deck. Reinsert enough kitten cards so that there is 1 less than the number of players. For example, if there are 4 players, insert 3 exploding kitten cards.
After reinserting the diffuse and exploding kitten cards, re-shuffle the whole deck and place it down on the center of the table. This is now known as your draw pile.
Gameplay for Exploding Kittens
There are several things to note when playing Exploding Kittens.
First and foremost, you end a turn by drawing a card. Meaning, you start your turn by either playing an action card, putting down a pair of powerless cards, or playing a special combo.
1. Playing an action card
Action cards are your skip, attack, favor, shuffle, see the future, and nope cards.
Each card has a specific action combined with it. For example, with the skip card, you get to end your turn without drawing a card.
Watch out! If someone has a nope card, they can counter your chosen action card! Nope Cards can be played at any time. Meaning, it’s not just the player after you that can put this down. Anyone can do it!
2. Putting down a pair of Powerless Cards
If a pair of Powerless Cards have been played, the player gets to pick a card from any other player’s hands. They can’t look though!
3. Playing a special combo
When playing a special combo, you ignore the instructions on the card and do the following instead:
There are 3 types of Special Combos you can play in Exploding Kitten.
- Two of a Kind: This can be applied to any card (not just powerless cards!) for as long as they have the same icons in the corner. For example, if you have 2 Nope Cards, you can play them together.
If played, you can proceed as usual when playing a pair; pick a random card from another player without looking.
- Three of a Kind: Similar to Two of a Kind, but instead you put down 3 cards with the same icon in the corner. Another difference is that with Three of a Kind, you get to name the card you want from a player.
If they have that card, you get to take it. Otherwise, you don’t get anything 🤷♀️
But at least you’ll have an idea of what cards they’re holding. Use this move wisely! 🤫😝
- 5 Different Cards: As you can tell from the combo name, you have to play 5 cards that have different icons in the corner (this applies to action cards, powerless cards, etc.)
If this is played, you get to go through Discard Pile and take any single card.
Rules for Exploding Kittens
Considering that Exploding Kittens ends a turn with the drawing a card, here are some additional reminders for all players.
1. You can play several cards during your turn
For example, if you play two sets of powerless cards, you can play one pair, take a card from a random player, then play the other pair and take another card from a different player.
You can also play two action cards; Play one, enact the action it comes with, then play the other.
Just make sure that when you’re done and/or have no other cards to put down, draw a card.This lets everyone know that your turn has ended.
2. You can count how many cards left are in the draw pile
If say, there are only two players left, you can count the number of cards left in the draw pile to determine your chances.
3. There is no maximum or minimum number of cards that should be in your hand.
There really isn’t any special action to take! Just keep on playing, because you’ll probably end up drawing 1 card on your next turn!
🤓 Suggested read: Secret Hitler: Video Review and How To Play
4. Winning at Exploding Kittens
Winning at Exploding Kittens is easy.
Just be the last person not to get an exploding kitten card! 😂
It might be a simple thing, but maybe actually being the last person to get an exploding kitten card is much harder than it seems 😝
Combining Two Packs
When combining 2 Exploding Kittens Original Pack, you can play with up to 9 players!
Are you expecting a bigger crowd? What are you waiting for? Go get that 2nd Exploding Kittens pack!
Exploding Kittens Review Video
If you had a difficult time reading through, don’t worry! We made a YouTube video to help you understand the game better while taking a look at the cards you’ll be encountering!
Head on over to our YouTube video on Exploding Kitten to get a glimpse on what you’ll find upon getting your hands on Exploding Kittens 🐱💣
Best Exploding Kittens Expansion Packs
The company itself has released various versions of Exploding Kittens, and these are:
- Exploding Kittens: Party Pack Edition
- Exploding Kittens: NSFW Edition
- Exploding Kittens: Recipe for Disaster
- Exploding Minions
But here are the specific expansion packs that you can get to expand any edition of the Exploding Kittens pack that you have:
🤓 Suggested read: Let's Play Sushi Go! Learn everything you need to know!
1. Imploding Kittens
The Imploding Kittens is the first expansion pack of Exploding Kittens which includes 20 new cards, allowing another player to participate and a human-sized Cone of Shame turn indicator.
How cool is that?! If it’s your turn, you get to wear your own Cone of Shame! Your cat is probably saying, “let’s see how you like it!” 😹
2. Streaking Kittens
Streaking Kittens is the second expansion pack that the company released for Exploding Kittens. This is the smallest expansion pack and offers an additional 15 new cards, but these 15 new cards change everything 😼
3. Barking Kittens
This is the third expansion pack released for Exploding Kittens. This pack contains 20 additional cards and a whole new game-changing wearable Cat Crown 🙀
Games like Exploding Kittens
If you’re enjoying the thrill of playing Exploding Kittens, here are some games that might give you the same adrenaline rush!
1. Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza
While Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza doesn’t use a Russian-roulette-like gameplay, it’s incredibly fast-paced and you’ll also never know who will be put out of the game.
The Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza game has 8 special characters you’ll be encountering. There’s the Taco, the Cat, the Goat, the Cheese, the Pizza, the Gorilla, the Narwhal, and the Groundhog.
Everyone takes turns saying “Taco” “Cat” “Goat” “Cheese” “Pizza” while putting down a card from their individual decks. Once the word and the card that was placed down matches, everyone has to slap the pile.
The last person to slap the pile has to get all the cards in the discard pile and add them to their individual deck.
There’s a catch, though! You don’t win just be finishing the cards in your deck. You also have to be the first person to slap the pile.
👉 Get to know more about Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza
2. Secret Hitler
Secret Hitler is a social deduction party game that is set in Pre-WWII Germany. German politicians are struggling to maintain a liberal government while there is a rise of fascism happening.
There are two roles one can take on for Secret Hitler. You can either be a Liberal or a Fascist; and someone within the fascists is Secret Hitler. The group votes on a President and the President chooses a Chancellor. If these candidates win, they have to work together and enact policies.
Liberals win by executing 5 Liberal Policies or Fascists win by enacting 6 fascist policies or electing Hitler as the Chancellor.
If you liked the thrill of Exploding Kittens, why not try out Secret Hitler? You’ll have to work your way to figure out who is Hitler. Will the liberals win? Or the fascists?
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Where can I buy Exploding Kittens?
You can easily order Exploding Kittens to your home on Amazon:
2. Where to buy Exploding Kittens in stores?
There’s a high chance of finding an Exploding Kitten Original Edition pack in your nearby toy store! You might also come across the Exploding Kittens in any store that sells games (maybe a bookstore, a party store, etc.)
Exploding Kittens is one of the top party games that everyone is dying to get their hands on, so don’t worry! It’ll be easy to find them!
3. How many cards are there in Exploding Kittens?
The Exploding Kittens Original Edition comes with 56 cards in total. But there are expansion packs that you can combine them with to be able to play with more players. Expansion packs range from 15-20 new cards.
You can also combine two Exploding Kittens Original Edition packs to play with a total of 9 players!
4. Who made exploding Kittens?
Started by former Xbox game designer Elan Lee and together with The Oatmeal’s founder Matt Inman, they created Exploding Kittens.
The pair initially sought to raise $10,000 through Kickstarter, but the Exploding Kittens campaign raised over $8.7M in 30 days from 219,000 backers. To date, Exploding Kittens is the top most-backed project in Kickstarter history selling more 11 million packs worldwide.
